Traveling

As I have mentioned, The Best Man and I did a "quick" 3 week trip to Europe. We went to London, Paris, Barcelona, Salzburg and Munich.

Many people have asked us to pick just one favorite city. I can't do it. I can narrow it down to 3, but that's cheating, isn't it? My top three would be Paris, Salzburg and Barcelona. I loved the art and pastries in Paris (and probably would have loved the wine had it been more reasonably priced for me to try the good stuff). I love, LOVE, L.O.V.E. The Sound of Music and thus loved our short stay in Salzburg. We did a bike tour and got to see over 20 of the sites from the movie. The food was also fabulous. And finally, Barcelona. Ah. The food, the culture, the architecture. I loved it all. While there we took a train down to Sitges, a beach city south of Barcelona. In the future, I would love to stay there and enjoy the beach and food.

We just started our "long drive back to Virginia" last week. We will be going to around a dozen national parks. So far, we have explored Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. We did a one night trip into the backcountry in Sequoia. The only time I have backpacked was our Grand Canyon REI trip with Tod and Tom in 2012. The logistics were crazy, especially, never having done it on our own before. The hike up to Twin Lakes took about 5 hours with about 3,000 ft of elevation gain. Part way up, we started seeing patches of snow.  Thankfully, we knew there would be some snow up and had packed several extra layers. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would camp in the snow. What an experience!

I will try to post more as we continue on this trip, however internet is hard to come by up here in the mountains.

We are currently staying at at KOA just south of Yosemite and will head into the park tomorrow.  Then its off to the San Francisco area (hello, wine country!) at the end of the week.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Edit: I will try to post pictures when I have a faster internet connection. 

New Digs

We are currently in the process of moving from a beach front one bedroom studio that is less than 300 sq feet to a 900 sq foot 2 bedroom apartment a 1/2 mile from the beach 30 minutes north.

We have about 3/4 of our stuff in the new place.  We need to bring up the fridge (apartments in our price point don't necessarily come with a refrigerator ..you'd think that paying over $1500/mo would mean you would get a 'fridge!), pack up the kitchen at the old place and move the last 1.5 loads into the new place. Oh, and completely clean the old place and the new place.

The Best Man and I are so excited to have a bigger place AND to have our first year lease together. Ever. We have been together for 6 years and have been married almost 2 years.  I can't believe we will be in one place for 12 consecutive months!

I am most looking forward to having furniture, friends and a place to call home.  I'm hoping to find a gym here soon. It has been hard to stay in shape when I haven't been able to run.  We haven't been making an effort to go to yoga class either.  I'm hoping to drive the 30 minutes south to our yoga studio to use more of our classes before they expire in August.

In the mean time, here's what we have planned:

Hawaii for my 30th birthday (next week!!!)
Disney and an Angels game for our 2 year anniversary (the week after we get back from Hawaii)
In-laws visit at the beginning of June
Then we are hoping to go to Joshua Tree to camp and hike at the end of June

So many exciting things coming up!

Obligatory New Year Post

Well, it's a New Year.

This past year I lived in Texas and California.  On New Years Day we drove from my in laws to my sister's place in NC.  We ate all the "lucky" food she could think of to give us all luck over the course of the year.

We then stopped in Memphis, were amazed by Graceland and underwhelmed by Beale St.

The drive then took us through some boring states to end up in big, 'ol "Everything-is-bigger-in" Texas!

The Best Man and I lived in Fort Worth Texas for about 7 months.  We lived "downtown" and loved walking to restaurants, shops (well, I did anyway), and the local trail system for running and biking.  The two of us got more into running and ran several races (a couple of 5k's, one 10k and two 1/2 marathons).  We made some really good friends with my local co-workers including other travelers.  The Best Man also found some local work and really liked have co-workers (especially local ones) for a change.

Some how we survived the summer in Texas, though it was not a pretty sight!

We then packed it all up at the end of the summer (including my new cowgirl boots!) and made for California.  Along the way we went to Monahands State Park and sand dunes, hiked the highest point in Texas (Guadalupe Peak), explored the caves of Carlsbad Caverns and wondered at the bats, hiked along and under the rim of Bryce Cannyon, hiked Angles Landing and the Narrows in Zion National Park, stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and hiked to the bottom and back up to the top of the Grand Canyon with hundreds of pictures, a few scraps and just as many new friends and one scorpion sting to show for it.

We've been living in California for the past 3 months.  The weather is perfect.  There is so much to see and do.  We have only been down to San Diego a couple of times, however have plans to continue exploring the city and the surrounding area.

Here's to 2013 and more adventures to come!

Angles Landing

Today we hiked Angles Landing.  It started off very steep with countless switch backs.  I didn't think it could get any harder until we saw a sign 0.5 miles to the summit.  Here is where the real work began.  The rest of the climb was straight up over the ridge with the ground 1400 ft or so below.  We held on to chains staked into the ground to help with ascent.  There is only one way up and down, so we had to pull over numerous times to let people going down pass us by.  The view of the valley was spectacular once we got to the top.  Tomorrow we plan to do a run in the valley (ie. flat!) before heading to Knab, where we will meet up on Monday morning for our REI Grand Canyon trip.

The Narrows

We hiked the Narrows, a slot canyon, today.  It was wet and now I'm tired.  I'm glad to have both my ankles intact.

Zion Day Two

Zion Day 2.  After sleeping in until 8 AM, we began the day with one of the hardest hikes in the park, Observation Point.  With over 2100 ft in elevation gain over the 3.5 to 4 miles to the top, this was one steep hike.  It wasn't as steep as the hike up Guadalupe Peak in TX, but it was pretty hard.  It took us just under 2 hours and 10 minutes to reach the top.  I huffed and puffed the whole way.  The Best Man kept making me take breaks because apparently, not only did I feel like I was going to pass out, I looked like it too.  We finally reached the top and enjoyed the view during lunch.  Had a quick phone interview, then made our way down. 

On the way down it was The Best Man (and our knees) turn to complain, "Where's my icecream?!"  We finally made it to the bottom, did a quick 0.4 mile round trip hike to see Weeping Rock (seep springs which make a hanging garden on the rock face), then made our way to ice cream.  Soft serve.  Plain vanilla for The Best Man and Swirl for me.  So good.  We did a few more shorter (and thankfully flatter) hikes before making our way back to camp.  After showering we had some really good Thai food followed by more icecream. 

Tomorrow we explore "The Narrows" which are some slot canyons, much of the hike will be wading through water. 

Valleys and Canyons

Yesterday we went through the Valley of the Gods and then Monument Valley.  Valley of the Gods, appears to be the less known or at least less visited of the two.  We went "off roading" on a cinder path through the valley.  The enormous orange and red structures jutted out of the ground haphazardly.  It was neat for the first 3-4 miles.  It was a 17 mile journey.  We stopped half way and had lunch then bounced and rolled out of there. 

Monument Valley was a complete and utter zoo.  There were hundreds of tourists, most of them foreign.  It was funny to see how different cultures pose for pictures.  Though I'm sure The Best Man's handstands and my jumping for pictures were amusing to them.  One of the tourists tried to cut in front of everyone in the bathroom line.  When it was my turn.  This did not go over well with me.  I told her there was a line and she apologized in broken English.  I'm going to assume this was a cultural difference and not that she meant to cut in front of 5 women in line.  We got our pictures at the viewing spot and left because we didn't want to deal with another 1-2 hour drive over a dirt road.  And this time with more people.

Then we ended the day in Bryce Canyon.  We didn't have time for a several hour hike, so we opted to go out as far as we were comfortable before turning back.  Looking down from along the rim provided the best view of the canyon, though it was interesting to see the "hoodoos" up close as we made our way to the bottom of the canyon. 

The next morning we started our day with a run along the rim trail.  We logged in just over 3.3 miles and got many stares from old travelers huffing and puffing as the leisurely strolled along.  Next stop, Zion.

Though it is only a 2-2.5 hour drive between Bryce and Zion the weather changed drastically.  We were so cold over the night and had to keep moving to stay warm during our morning run.  When we arrived in Zion, I couldn't change into less clothing fast enough.  First, we found a campsite, The Best Man set up the tent while I made lunch.  After eating we did a 3 mile hike that included some waterfalls (minimal water, but tall in height).  We just had a gourmet dinner of Chef Boardi Ravioli.  Such is camping life.  We have several more days to explore Zion.  Then it's off to the Grand Canyon before heading to California! 

Please note, the first part of this post was written yesterday.  I do not have the battery power nor patience to correct the wording. 

Cliff dwellings and fauna sightings

We spent the afternoon exploring Mesa Verde, a National Park with hundreds of ancient dwellings ranging from pit houses to cliff dwellings.  We were taken back in time as we explored these small villages that cling to alcoves in the rock face.  We got to climb huge ladders and even crawl through a tunnel (The Best Man barely made it through!). There are many mysteries and holes in the knowledge about these cliff dwelling people.  However, they are able to date many of the dwellings, tell what they ate, how they built their homes and much more from the archealogical work they do in the park.  It was really interesting to hear about this culture and the communities this area of the country.

This is where we had our best spotting of wild life.  Shortly after entering the park, we spied a mama bear and her two cubs crossing the road.  We were able to stop and frantically snap a few pictures before they scampered off.  Perfect way to spot a bear if you ask me.  From the car!  We saw about 7 deer in total throughout the day, as well as 4-5 turkey, many bunnies and birds.  Tomorrow we are taking a winding route through the 4 corners, Monument Valley and maybe Antelope Canyon.

Guadalupe Peak and more Carlsbad Caverns

The Best Man and I celebrated Labor Day by hiking the highest peak in Texas: Guadalupe Peak.  The elevation gain was over 3,000 ft with the highest point measuring around 8,750 ft.  The total mileage was 8.4 which makes this one steep climb.  It was hard to say the least, however the views made it worthwhile.  It was amazing to look down and see how high we had climbed once we reached the top.  There was one small mountain range close by, otherwise it was extremely flat from our vantage point at The Top of Texas.

After the hike we managed to find ESPN on our motel t.v. and were able to watch the VT season opener vs. Georgia Tech.  VT was up (10 to 7) near the middle of the 4th quarter so we muted the game to do some trip planning.

I skimmed my notes on New Mexico and noted there were some hot springs in the general vicinity of our travels.  After looking into it we decided to book a small room at an inn in Truth or Consequences, NM.  Yes, that's the name of the city.  Definitely curious as to the history of this city's name.  After the inn was booked we glanced back at the t.v.

Overtime?!  14-14 with VT about to punt.  The kick was good and VT won their first game of the season.  Barely.

Today we headed back to the Caverns for two guided tours.  The first of which was a lantern tour where explored the cave on dirt trails with only the light of our lanterns.  We learned a lot about the history of the caves and how the first visitors must have felt venturing in the darkness with an oil lamp or candle.

After briefly surfacing for lunch, we walked down into the cave from The Natural Entrance to meet up with our tour of The King's Palace.  These chambers are the most decorated of these caves and are truly stunning to see up close.  My little camera couldn't do it justice.  The Best Man's camera however was able to capture a lot of the detail my pictures left lacking.  Even with The Best Man's Cannon, external flash and multiple lenses, it is so hard to get an idea of just how enormous these caves really are.  All I can do is recommend you make the trip and see for yourself.  You won't regret it.

After emerging from the caves for our final time we headed to Carlsbad KOA for the night.  We ended up with tent site with electrity.  We soon had a visitor- a bunny! It wasn't very shy, which leads me to believe it was hoping we'd toss it some food.  This KOA has a spectacular bbq dinner.  We split a beef bbq sandwich and 1/2 rack of ribs.  The sauce was fantastic!  I love vinegar!

Next stop: Truth or Consequences, NM for the hot springs.  We are both looking forward to relaxing and recharging.